Management of Substitution in EnglishChinese Trans lation.docx

Management of Substitution in EnglishChinese Trans lation.docx

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ManagementofSubstitutioninEnglishChineseTranslation

ManagementofSubstitutioninEnglish―ChineseTranslation

　　【Abstract】Substitutionisoneofthemajorcohesivedevices.BothEnglishandChineseusesubstitution.Butduetothedifferencesbetweenthetwolanguages，thetranslationmethodsadoptedshouldvaryaccordingtothesituation.ThisthesisaimstoexplorethedifferentstrategiesthatcanbeusedinthetranslationofsubstitutionfromEnglishtoChineseindifferentcases.Acontrastivestudybetweenthetwolanguagesiscrucialinthisprocess.

　　【Keywords】Substitution；cohesion；English-ChineseTranslation

　　Introduction

　　CohesivedevicesareveryimportantinEnglishtexts.AccordingtoHallidayandHasan（1976），cohesioncanbedividedintotwomajorcategories：

grammaticalcohesionandlexicalcohesion.Grammaticalcohesionconsistsofreference，substitution，ellipsis，conjunction；andlexicalcohesionreferstoreiterationandcollocation.Thisessaywillonlyfocusonthetranslationmethodsofsubstitution.

　　Substitutionmeans“thereplacementofoneitembyanother”（HallidayandHasan1976：

88）.Thefunctionofsubstitutionistomakesentencessuccinctandclear.ItisofgreatimportanceintheformingofbothEnglishandChinesetexts.Whatthispaperdoesbesidesasummarizationoftheworkdonebyformerresearchersistoextendtheresearchofthetranslationofsubstitution，sothatincaseofamorecomplicatedsentencestructure，amoreflexiblestrategycanbeadopted.Theaimistoachieveanaturaltranslation，andbroadeningtheideasoftranslatingsubstitutions.

　　ClassificationofSubstitutionandNormallyUsedWaysofTranslatingThem

　　Aswasmentionedabove，thefunctionofsubstitutionistoavoidunnecessaryrepetition，thusmakingthesentencemoresuccinctandconcise.Asoneofthemajorcohesivedevice，itcontributestothebindingofsentencesandsmoothnessofthetext.

　　HallidayandHasan（1976）dividedsubstitutionintothreegroups：

nominal，verbalandclausal.

　　Nominalsubstitutionmostlyinvolvestheuseof“one”，“ones”and“same”assubstitutionitems.Whenusedinsubstitution，theyalwaysfunctionastheHeadofanominalgroup.InChinese，thereisnocompleteequivalentfortheEnglishsubstitutionform“one”.Normally，thiskindofsubstitutioncanbetranslatedas“…的”or“…者”.Forexample：

　　ST：

Myaxeistooblunt.Imustgetasharperone.（HallidayandHasan1976）

　　TT：

我的斧子太钝了。

我得去买把锋利的。

　　Here，“one”istranslatedas“锋利的”.“锋利的”isactuallyauseofellipsisinChinese.Thefullsentenceshouldbe“我得去买把锋利的斧子。

”　　Hereisanotherexamplewhere“one”canbetranslatedas“…者”：

　　ST：

Thenewbooksarequiteuseful，buttheoldonesarenottotallyuselessaswell.

　　TT：

新书十分有用，但是陈旧者也未必完全无用。

　　“者”herefunctionsexactlyasthe“one”intheEnglishtext.Butthereissomethingtobenoticedwhentranslatingsubstitutiondevicesinto“者”，thatis，“者”indicatesaclassicalstyleofwriting.

　　Inothercases，nominalsubstitutioncanbetranslatedbyusingrepetitioninChinese.ThisisbecausetheChineselanguagehasahabitofusingthesamewordstobalancethesentenceweightandtomakethesentencesmorerhythmic.ButEnglishtendstoavoidrepetitionasmuchaspossibleunlessthereisaspecialneed，hencetheuseofsubstitution.Forexample：

　　ST：

Inafewmomentsarevolverwasheard.Theywaitedforasecondone，buttherewasonlysilence.

　　TT：

不一会儿，听到一声左轮枪响。

他们等待第二声枪响，但只有一片寂静。

　　Here，“枪响”ismentionedagainbecauseoftherhymeofthesentence.

　　Thereisonlyonewordforverbalsubstitution，whichis“do”，includingitsmorphologicalscatter“do”，“does”，“doing”，“did”，“done”anditsinflection“doso”，etc.Itisasubstitutionofaverboraverbalphraseinthesentence.AndsinceChinesealsohavesomeverbsthatshareasimilarfunctioninthesentence，like“来”，“弄”，“搞”，“做”，etc.，thiskindofsubstitutionwillmostlybetranslatedtoitsChinesecounterpart.Forexample：

　　English：

Youaretoobusytocleantheroom.Letmedoit.

　　Chinese：

你太忙，没有时间打扫房间。

让我来吧。

（ChenandLi2004：

67）

　　The“来”herecantotallybesubstitutedwithanotherChineseverb，like“弄”or“搞”or“做”，etc.

　　Inotheroccasions，amethodofrepetitioncanalsobeusedwhentranslatingverbalsubstitution，asin：

　　English：

YouthinkJoanalreadyknows？

?

CIthinkeverybodydoes.（Baker2001：

186）

　　Chinese：

你觉得琼已经知道了？

――我觉得所有人都知道了。

　　Clausalsubstitutionisanothertypeofsubstitutioninwhichthepresupposedelementisanentireclause.Themostoftenusedwordsare“so”and“not”.Correspondingtothese，Chineseuses“（不）这样”，“（不）这么”，“（不）是”，“不然”，and“要不”.SonormallyitisrathereasytofindanexactequivalenceintheChineselanguagewhentranslatingthiskindofsubstitution.Forexample：

　　English：

Doyouthinkhewastooserious？

?

CYes，Ithinkso.

　　Chinese：

你看他是不是太认真了？

――不错，我想是这样的。

（He2002：

484）

　　ContrastiveStudiesofEnglishandChineseLanguageStructuresRelatedtotheTranslationofSubstitution　　EnglishasanorthographiclanguageisverydifferentfromChinese，whosecharactersareideographic.Theirdifferenceinnatureleadstotheirdiscrepanciesingrammarandlanguagestructures.

　　JiangJiansongmakescomparisonbetweenEnglishandChineseinsixaspects：

hypotaxisandparataxis，inanimatesubjectandanimatesubject，activeandpassive，stativeanddynamic，contractionandextension，subjectandtopic.Amongthese，themostfundamentaldifferenceinEnglishandChinesegrammaristhatofhypotaxisandparataxis（Jiang2002：

3）.ThatmeansthesemanticmeaninginEnglishislargelyembeddedinitsform，whilethatoftheChineselanguageisnot.AnotherlanguagefeatureofEnglishisthatitsbasicsentencestructureisbranchingtotheright，becauseithasplentyofmorphologicalvariations（Zhou2003：

135）.AndsinceChinesehasnomorphologicalvariations，ithastodependonsemanticcoherenceandwordordertoarrangethesentence，sothebranchingpatterniscomparativelyflexible（ibid）.Thesetwodifferencesarebothrelatedtothetranslationofsubstitution.

　　Asissuggestedbymanyscholars，whentranslatingEnglishintoChinese，translatorswillnormallybreakthegrammaticalstructuresoftheoriginaltext，graspthemeaningonlyandthenorganizethemeaningagaininChinese.

　　ATranslationComparisonofaMoreComplicatedCase

　　ThissentenceappearsinaBBCculturalprogramme.Thearticleisaboutthestoryofalostparadise，Shangri-La.

　　English：

ThestoryofShangri-Laitselfisamodernone，toldbytheEnglishnovelistJamesHiltoninhisnovelLostHorizon（1933）.（Wood2011）

　　Thesubstitutionelement“one”hereishardtotranslatebecauseofthedescriptiveelementafterthecomma.Itisasubstitutionof“story”.Aswasmentionedbefore，thebasicsentencestructureofEnglishisbranchingtotherightduetoitsstrictformandgrammar.ButChinesesentencestructureisratherfree，andadescriptiveelementlikethisdoesnotexistintheChineselanguage.Sotransferringmeaningshouldbethepriorityinthistask，whiletheformiscomparativelylessimportant.Inthiscase，ifthesimpletranslationmethodsmentionedabovewouldstillbefollowed，anaturalandfluenttranslationwouldnotbeachieved.Ananalysisofthesentenceshouldbedonehere.

　　Overallthissentencehasfourlayersofmeaningthatneedstobetranslated.Thefirstmeaningis：

ThestoryofShangri-Laitselfisamodernone.Thesecondmeaningis：

ItistoldbytheEnglishnovelistJamesHilton.Thethirdmeaningis：

HetoldaboutitinhisnovelLostHorizon.Andthefourthmeaningis：

Thenovelispublishedin1933.SoifatranslationcanassemblethesemeaningstogetheragaininanaturalChineselanguage，itshouldbeagoodtranslation.　　Thefollowingisthecomparisonoftwodifferenttranslationsofthissentence.

　　Translation1：

香格里拉是英国作家詹姆斯?

希尔顿在他的小说《消失的地平线》（1933年出版）一书中所描绘的当代人间天堂。

　　Inthistranslation，thetranslatordecidestomovethedescriptiveelementforward，andtranslatethesubstitutionitem“one”as“modernearthlyparadise”.AllthefourmeaningshavebeenclearlystatedinafluentChineseway.Sothistranslationisrathergood.TheonlyproblemisthatthedescriptiveelementistoolongandcreatesforegroundingwhenreadaboutitinChinese.Soitisalittleunnatural.

　　Nowlet’stakealookatthesecondtranslation.

　　Translation2：

香格里拉是个现代故事，故事的作者是英国小说家詹姆斯?

希尔顿。

1933年他出版了一部小说《消失的地平线》，其中……

　　Inthistranslation，thetranslatorchoppedthesentenceintosmallsegmentswhichistotallydifferentfromtheoriginalsentenceinform.Thetranslatorevenbreakstheboundariesofthesentence，andmixesthethirdandfourthmeaningsegmentswiththenextsentence.Sohereforthistranslator，thetranslationunithasbeenbroadeningtoatextlevelinsteadofasentencelevel.ThistranslationworkreadsmorelikeanoriginalChinesetalking，soitismorenaturalthanthefirstone，andnoforegroundingcreatedeither.Theonlylossistheform，whichisnotofgreatimportanceintheChineselanguage.

　　Conclusion

　　SubstitutionisanimportantcohesivedevicebothinEnglishandinChinese.Buttheusesofthemareverydifferentbetweenthetwolanguages.Normallythesubstitutionitemcanbeeasilytranslatedandanequivalentpartisnotveryhardtofind.However，sometimeswhenthesentencestructurebecomesmorecomplicated，aflexiblestrategyshouldthenbeadopted.Inwhicheverway，toachievethetransferenceofthemeaningisthetoppriorityofEnglish-Chinesetranslationpracticeinmostcases.

　　References：

　　[1]Baker，M.（2001）.InOtherWords.1stedn.London：

Routledge.

　　[2]Chen，H.andLi，Y.（ed.）（2004）ANewCoursebookonChinese-EnglishTranslation.Shanghai：

ShanghaiForeig